Research and Markets: Proteins: Strategies for Optimizing Drug Discovery.

Business Editors

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2004

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of Proteins: Strategies for Optimizing Drug Discovery to their offering.

Proteins: Strategies for Optimizing Drug Discovery evaluates current efforts to commercialize this valuable source of potential drug targets. Proteins provide the critical link between genes and disease, and as such are the key to understanding of basic biological processes including disease pathology, diagnosis, and treatment.

Proteomics will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the drug discovery and development process. The pervasiveness of protein function and their potential for therapeutic intervention are attracting increasing attention from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Proteomics promises to yield drugs with reduced side effects and improve clinical trial success - Novartis' Gleevec and Genentech's Herceptin exemplify the emergence of proteins as viable drug target candidates. Researchers have discovered many potential therapeutic targets, and there are currently more than 700 products in various phases of development.

However, translating the study of proteins into optimized drug targets poses substantial challenges. Hundreds of thousands of potential new protein targets have been identified, but the resources to effectively validate them are lacking. This report covers emerging tools and methods, and the companies supplying them, for protein production and commercialization, and evaluates the key barriers to discovering and developing novel proteins as drug targets, diagnostic and protein chip applications, and vaccines.

Issues Addressed in This Report:

1. New tools and research strategies are needed for protein expression, purification, screening, and measuring protein interactions.

2. Technologies are needed for determining 3D protein structure to understand how each protein functions normally and how faulty protein structures can cause disease.

3. In their native sources, proteins usually are either very low in concentration or present for only a certain period of time, but fairly large protein samples are required for adequate expression.

4. The proteome is variable and dynamic.

-- Proteins continue to gain significant attention from the

pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries as a valuable

source of potential drug targets. Sales are expected to top $9

billion USD by 2006. Notwithstanding this growing interest,

studying the complex domain of 200,000-300,000 distinct and

interactive proteins poses substantial challenges. It is

unlikely that a single, universal technology will emerge that

will enable researchers to accomplish all goals.

-- In the face of such challenges, the emergence of proteins as

viable drug target candidates has been exemplified in a few

cases. Gleevec, an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of

chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), targets an abnormal version

of a cellular protein present in nearly all CML patients.

Successful therapeutic inhibition of a protein is further

exemplified in Herceptin, a drug for the treatment of breast

cancer.

-- Protein expression technologies will play a major role in

harnessing novel proteins as drug targets, for diagnostics,

for protein chip applications, and for vaccines. Key factors

for efficient, high-production expression systems are optimal

host strains, vectors, and growth conditions. Bacterial,

yeast, insect, and mammalian are the most commonly used

expression systems today.

-- Despite the high yield of expression recombinant proteins 

produce, insoluble precipitates of expressed proteins (called

inclusion bodies) are often observed in prokaryotic, yeast,

and higher eukaryotic host systems. Since inclusion bodies are

in most cases biologically inactive, they must be solubilized

and refolded into an active conformation to be useful. Several

companies have begun introducing products to streamline this

challenging process.

Expert Contributors

Thomas J. Bronzert, Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc.; G. Steven Burrill, Burrill & Company; Tauseef R. Butt, LifeSensors Inc.; Grant Cameron/ Lorna Watson/ Kevin Auton, NextGen Sciences Ltd.; The Center for Eukaryotic Structural Genomics (CESG) Development Team; Lorin Charlton/ Ryan Leskiw, PENCE; Jonas Ekblom, SEQUENOM, Inc.; John Michnowicz/ Rudolf Grimm, Agilent Technologies; James L.; Hartley, NCI /NCI Frederick Protein Expression Laboratory; Dave Hicks, Applied Biosystems; Jingfang Ju, USA Cancer Research Institute; M. Walid Qoronfleh, Perbio Sciences

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c1563